Men Like Him
by Zarius
Summary: It was over. All was well. Wasn't it? (tag for 1x10: "Win-Day")


**THE DEMON HEADMASTER**

**MEN LIKE HIM**

**WRITTEN BY ZARIUS**

* * *

It was over.

The school had been freed from the grip of the Headmaster.

Ethan had made peace with his parent's memory.

Blake had found understanding with his mother.

Angelika's mother could be herself again.

Lizzie and Tyler's parents could think for themselves.

All was well.

Wasn't it?

Lizzie embraced her brother, and as she did so, she wondered why she couldn't feel happier.

She had, after all, just won a war.

The victory wasn't earned single handidly, she had learned the value of kindred spirits and unlikely allies, she had to learn to trust the untrustworthy, had dared against one man's dominion time and again despite numerous attempts to hold her to order.

She should be proud of herself, happy with herself, content.

But she wasn't.

She still wondered why she was allowed to push herself as far as she did; it was only recently that the Headmaster had introduced the armband shock devices to act as a collar around the necks, or in this case the wrists, of her and her friends.

It was as if he knew he could not control her, or Ethan, or Tyler, Angelika, or Blake, at least not for long, and had to take drastic steps to prevent their insurrections.

And it still hadn't been enough.

And then, in those fateful moments in the Headmaster's study mere minutes earlier, the five friends, and Dinah Hunter, came to realize a potential reason as to why.

He had appeared out of nowhere, shrouded in mystery, but for Dinah his identity was too clear.

An old man, wise in wickedness, a command in his voice that was of the strictest, most disciplined form of evil, a man with all the answers but just as many questions.

A man with the same method of control as the Headmaster.

A man with the same face as the Headmaster of St. Champions, where Liz and Tyler's mother had been in attendance as a prefect

A school where she had met the Headmaster, and was led down a path so traumatic she buried it deep within her mind, at the cost of her physical health as the effort to repress the horrid memories became too great.

Who was this older man? What hold did he have over the demonic cad that had gripped the friends' school in such a state of fortified fascism?

Even though he was a hologram, it seemed he could extend his reach beyond his precise whereabouts; he was able to subdue the younger Headmaster and leave him in a state of helplessness as he set off a bomb in his office.

Lizzie and her friends were quick to react, opting to save their enemy from a well-earned fate, knowing it was the right thing to do morally.

And, perhaps, because they possibly understood even he was not fully to blame for the calamitous events he had caused, perhaps by saving him they could turn this force of twisted nature to their side and speak of the older man's methods, his purpose.

He had made references to an operation he and the younger Headmaster had been carrying out, and now that the project had been compromised, he was trying to cut the strings and ensure nothing of the younger Headmaster remained intact for Dinah's MI6 agents to prod and pick to determine what made men like him tick.

Was the younger Headmaster his puppet all along?

Or was their debate with one another meant to convey that they were in a fragile partnership?

Lizzie thought back to the words of this haunted man as his hologram shut down.

"Until the next time...Lizzie Warren"

He sensed her desire to change the world he intended to subdue, men like him existed to stamp out the spark of the young and inspired, who's fresh and new ideas would forever radicalise the way we treat the planet, humanity, and its values.

Lizzie sensed an overwhelming urge, a command, to rise up like Dinah and continue to fight; she had at such a young age found her path had been chosen for her through her efforts at Hazzelbrook

She was the best she could be, the war with the Headmaster would stay with her, and she had now been noticed.

Nothing was certain, nothing was safe.

It wasn't over.

Men like him would see to that.


End file.
